The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 16.
Next is Mark Adams, vice president of technology & engineering at Peraton, who is the Business Development Executive of the Year finalist in the Private Company category with annual revenues greater than $250M. Here, he shares success in his current role and proud organizational moments.
What has made you successful in your current role?
Any success I have had in my career comes down to two key factors: my mentors and my teams. I’ve had the incredible opportunity to work with peers and mentors who have invested in me and encouraged my development throughout the years. The Peraton leadership team has encouraged me to be better every day, every week, every year throughout my entire career.
Second, is the benefit of working with a team that is committed to creating value for our customers who share a passion for the mission. A technologist to my core, through this teamwork I’ve learned how to connect innovations back to the business and our customer missions.
My career has been a journey of learning from some of the best business and technology minds in the industry and I am thankful for the experience.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
Peraton conducts business in a way that requires leaders to continuously optimize our people, process, and tools for success. In connecting capabilities to business objectives, we have applied agile processes using a unique set of tools and processes targeted to change the culture we integrated during our heritage integration.
I have been involved in a range of activities over the course of my career where I was met with “you can’t do that” to which I responded, “why not?” For me, it was a risk and an opportunity to accept the role at Peraton several years ago. At that point in my career, I wanted to leverage the mentorship, knowledge, and skills I had acquired over the years to take on my next challenge. My current role as Peraton’s vice president of technology and engineering (T&E) allows me to actualize that inspiration.
What’s a quote you default back to?
I have a sign in my office that says, “be a voice, not an echo.” I interpret that quote to mean it’s not our job to maintain the status quo or to approach challenges the same way they have been approached in the past. Throughout my career, some have told me I can be a “bit outside the box” in my thinking, but I guess that comes from a character quality that drives me to innovate.
I have often tried to push the system to explore possibilities beyond what was previously possible by asking, Is the present approach really going to solve the problem? The sign “be a voice, not an echo” reminds me to be a voice of leadership and to lead in a new direction when the challenges require innovation.